FG/Labour policies central to economic decline - Tóibín.

In the past 12 months the number of people at work in the state has decreased. This June saw a 33,400 fall on the previous June. Since Fianna Fáil collapsed the economy in 2008, Ireland has shed more jobs per capita than any other western country since the Great Depression. A look at the unemployment and emigration figures shows the severe human cost of this government’s policies. The key performance indicators of government are shocking and damning. While the global economic climate has cooled, the government’s own policies are central to this country’s comparatively disastrous results. Despite government spin every indicator is demonstrating that the economic policies of Labour and Fine Gael are failing. At the beginning of the year the Taoiseach unveiled the action plan for jobs, and promised an additional 100,000 jobs by 2016. The figures today show that over 33,000 less jobs in the economy over the past year and that almost 60% of those unemployed have been out of work for over a year. It is clear that the policies of this government are costing jobs, yet the government continues with the same failing polices and more budget cuts. This government which is behaving like an economic lemming needs to volte face and take on the international best practice of counter-cyclical stimulus. Sinn Féin has offered detailed proposals which would see a €13 billion stimulus jump start the economy and create 130,000 jobs.